How BurlingtonIQ covers the election

BurlingtonIQ does not endorse, recommend, rank or score candidates. We publish no “best candidate” conclusions, no popularity meters and no predictions. We present what is documented and let you decide.

Every candidate in the same race is presented under the same structure, with the same fields and the same standards. No candidate gets more editorial text, a more prominent position or a photograph that another in the same race does not.

Within any race, candidates appear in the order the City of Burlington’s official certified-candidates list gives them. Acclaimed candidates are shown under the same rule. Ordering carries no meaning.

The candidate roster is read from the clerk’s official certified-candidates page by a script that records each name, race, ward or trustee area and status — certified, acclaimed or withdrawn — exactly as the page publishes it, and the date it was read. Voting dates and methods are taken from the clerk’s voter pages, in the clerk’s own words, each with its source and retrieval date. Who sits on council today comes from the municipality’s council pages.

An acclamation is shown only where the clerk’s page declares one; a race with a single listed candidate is not called acclaimed otherwise.

BurlingtonIQ does not republish candidates’ phone numbers, email addresses, mailing addresses or websites, even where the clerk’s list carries them. The official list is linked from every candidate page.

A candidate’s position appears only when a cited public source documents it, summarised faithfully with a link to the source. Where no position is documented, we say exactly that, and we do not infer, guess or fill a position a candidate has not stated.

Election pages do not label incumbency or publish office-holders’ records such as recorded votes. Who holds each seat today is shown, as a fact about the seat, on the council and ward pages.

Election information changes. Each election page shows a “Last verified” date. A monitor re-reads the clerk’s candidate page and voter pages and reports any difference to an editor; it never changes the published data by itself.

If we get a fact wrong, we want to fix it. Tell us through the contact page, with the page and the correction. We keep the page’s URL, correct the fact and update the verification date.

BurlingtonIQ is not the election authority. The City of Burlington runs the election, the voters’ list and the voting places — always confirm official details on the Burlington Election site.